Tales of Threes
by Blackwidina
Summary: As I played the game, I kept asking myself: What was Anna like?  How did she get where she was?  This story attempts to delve a little deeper into her mystery.  Rated for later chapters.  Kratos/Anna, eventually, of course.
1. Chapter 1

**Superstition**

Anna hated threes.

When she'd been a child, she'd gotten it into her mind that three was an unlucky number, and the idea had been with her ever since. Part of her insisted that it wasn't such a foolish notion. She and her younger brother, Richard, had both been three when they'd contracted their first serious illnesses. Their mother had died birthing their third sibling, also stillborne. And on her thirteenth birthday, she'd climbed a favorite tree to have one of the limbs-a thick, formerly sturdy branch with no signs of prior strain-break without any warning.

And three months after *his* thirteenth birthday, Richard had been killed by Desians.

Anna had first suspected something was wrong when some of the men from the mayor's office came to see her father. Rebellious when told curtly to leave the house, she'd crawled under an open window where she could hear most of the conversation between the three men. One of them had accused her father of not paying his taxes for the previous three years.

Anna felt her gut tighten, insisting inside her mind that she was just being silly. She was only a few weeks from being eighteen, an adult. She was too old to be holding on to such superstitions. But no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, her heart still trembled.

The word 'prison' jolted her back to attention, and as she listened, she realized that they intended to take her father into custody. And these days, 'custody' didn't mean a nice little jail cell. Luin had an agreement with the local human ranch; anyone guilty of a crime got a free, one-way trip there. It sounded harsh, but it kept the Desians away from most of the population unless their mysterious 'quotas' weren't met.

What met her ears next made her heart nearly stutter to a stop, as she heard her father asking-no, _begging!_-them to take her-his _own daughter_-instead.

She was so shaken by the betrayal that she couldn't even move, at first. She simply shook as she listened to the raucous laughter of the other men. A hand from behind clapped over her mouth, muffling her startled scream before she recognized Richard's voice, whispering that they had to leave. Now.

She trustingly followed her little brother, too shocked to really absorb what was going on around her. They made it maybe halfway down the hill before they were spotted. Apparently, the mayor's men had alerted the Desians beforehand. The conclusion was forgone.

Anna was held down and forced to watch as they beat both her father and Richard. The first was because of his 'cowardly attempt to escape justice,' and the other for trying to 'conceal potential Desian property.' Both charges were just a thinly veiled attempt to make themselves look righteous, and Anna-all fear forgotten in the face of her baby brother's suffering-said as much to them. She even took the blow to the face with as much dignity as she could muster while on her knees in the dirt. She glared up at him, unrepentant.

The Desians 'attending' to her father suddenly stopped, one muttering an 'oh, shit,' under his breath. The other straightened and snapped a salute to the one that had struck Anna, "S-sir! He seems to have died."

Anna gasped, peering around the man's legs. Even knowing he'd been willing to trade her to save himself didn't deaden the impact of seeing her flesh and blood lying so still on the ground. His face was nearly unrecognizable.

'Her' Desian sighed, and seemed to be rolling his eyes, though under that helmet, she could only really guess. "Good thing we're not over the limit. Yet. Still, that's one less test subject. We'll definitely have to take one of these other two, now."

Richard struggled to lift his head from where he lay. He gave a ragged, blood-choked cough, spewing blood and bile. "M-me. Taa-take . . ."

_No_, Anna thought desperately, but before she could say anything, the Desian began to laugh.

"Trust me, you pathetic creature," he mocked. "You won't survive the night. Looks like your sister's going with us, after all." He seemed about to turn away, but thought better of it. "Kill him."

The other Desians glanced at one another. "Sir?" one asked, hesitantly.

He just shook his head. "Trust me, people love a hero. And who makes a better hero than an orphan fighting to save his sister from certain doom? We don't want to give these inferior beings any such . . . inspiration." He glanced over at Anna, who'd renewed her struggles against the ones holding her. "Look. See what I mean? Hope. It makes them struggle, makes them too stupid to realize just how helpless they are. Well, watch this, little girl."

Anna screamed as she watched that pointed, metal-tipped boot smash into her baby brother's skull, knocking him to the ground. She couldn't even form words to adequately express the rage and pain and helplessness as she looked into her brother's eyes for the last time, right as the Desian's full weight was slammed down onto his neck, breaking it.

She fought. Mousy, quiet, little Anna fought against six grown men, screaming and biting and kicking. It wasn't until she was finally knocked unconscious, the world slowly fading from her sight, that she felt a morbidly hilarious thought:

Of all the family she had left, she would be the third of them to die.


	2. Chapter 2

As always, I don't own Tales of Symphonia, nor make any profit from these writings

* * *

Chapter 2—Lab Rat

Anna didn't resist as they processed her; she was in too much pain, inside and out. She just shut herself off, ignoring them as much as she could while they measured and weighed her, put her in odd chambers that made strange sounds and flashed lights. They took needles and drew her blood, then turned around and injected her with blue and yellow chemicals. Some of them burned.

She was laying strapped down to a table, watching in disinterest as a bottle of clear fluid—one that thankfully didn't hurt this time—trickled down a slender tube into her arm. She'd long since lost track of the hours.

The door to the room opened—an alarming site, as it did so without anyone touching it—and an obviously high-ranking Desian walked in with one of the doctors. He spoke with the doctor at length, a conversation that went completely over her head. She just stared at the little bottle emptied, so slowly, she wasn't even sure if she could see the moment.

"Human." Surprised to be addressed, Anna's eyes snapped back to the Desian, who moved closer. "Human-"

"Anna," she interjected, surprising herself and making the half-elf scowl. She couldn't bring herself to care. She had a _name_, dammit, and calling her 'human,' 'child,' or 'girl,' or any other label tended to anger her.

"_Human_," he repeated deliberately. "You seem able to channel mana to some small degree. Have you elven blood in your veins?"

Elven blood? As though she were one of them? Confused, she shook her head, "I don't know." Her father had never mentioned such a thing.

"Have you any blood kin?"

Her heart froze at his callous inquiry, and she couldn't hide the pain in her voice as she spat, "No. You Desians killed them all."

The already sour face looked even more unpleasant, "A pity. You have all the qualities needed for my latest experimental group. I was hoping there would be more in your bloodline. And unfortunately, if there _is _any elven blood in you, it's too faint to breed reliably, even if we could spare the time. On the lighter side, human, you may soon be joining them." He chuckled without much humor, then turned to the doctor. "Put her with the others. That will make twelve. We'll begin implanting the experimental exspheres after the final tests are complete."

"Yes, Lord Kvar."

After that strange encounter followed more tests, this time with the other candidates-at least she assumed so. She saw very little of them: an old man, crippled with joint pain, a couple of motherly looking women who constantly switched roles of comforting the other and bawling their eyes out. There were other men as well, of various ages, but she' found herself uncomfortable with the way they watched her. The hardest to bear was a small boy of about three. He hadn't spoken a word to anyone, too young to really understand what the Desians were doing or why. Of course, when she thought about it, she really didn't know the answers to those questions either.

The strangest part came when they took her to an outside area that looked almost like a child's playground. For two straight days, the Desians made them run in circles, jump over increasingly hazardous distances, and push ever heavier blocks of material until they would literally collapse from exhaustion. Anna couldn't really understand the sense of pride she felt at outlasting the other women, but that faint feeling of accomplishment helped get her through a trial she quite honestly feared might kill her. She'd never worked so hard in her life, even on her father's land.

The third day, she felt cold dread in her stomach as each of them were taken away in the morning. The little boy clung to her after the motherly women left. Anna could feel his little muscles shaking from the overuse they'd been subjected to. She ran her fingers through his hair, suppressing a pang of regret. She'd always thought that she'd like children someday. She enjoyed volunteering at the creche and at the local school. But now . . . well, no one taken to a ranch ever returned.

The little boy's number—A011, the one right before hers—was called, but he clutched so desperately to Anna that in the name of expediency, they let her carry him into the other room. There, Anna nearly stumbled over her own feet when she saw the narrow-eyed gaze of the high-ranking Desian from the other day. From his sneer, she gathered that he remembered her too.

"Well, well, human. I _hope_ you've been enjoying your stay. I think it's time for you to be introduced to your true role here." He gestured imperiously to the nearest scientist.

"Subject A011, step forward."

Her little friend just clung harder. Anna stroked his head and held him close. "What are you planning on doing to him?"

Kvar laughed, "Oh, the same thing that happens to everybody else in this ranch. However, you and the other subjects will be part of a special experimental procedure."

"He's only a child!" she protested.

"Human, my patience is growing thin—either hand him over, or you'll both be beaten within an inch of your lives, and then forced to undergo the experiments anyway."

Anna hung her head in defeat and let the scientist pull him away from her, wishing she could close her ears to his thin wails. She wasn't even allowed to stay where he could see her as they took a dully glowing orb and forced it to meld with the skin on his left hand. She'd seen exspheres before—the Desians all had them, of course—but she'd never seen one so dark. And she'd never seen the Desians wear an exsphere without first putting on one of the little metal shields that went between them. And judging from the boy's jerking and crying, it wasn't a pleasant experience.

A moment later, she nearly jumped out of her skin as Kvar's oily voice spoke by her ear, "Since you're here, you can be subject A012."

Feeling a surge of irrational fear (after all, twelve was a multiple of three), she decided to push her reaction to one of anger; she turned to face the Desian head on, "Funny, I thought half-elves were supposed to be intelligent."

Something dark twisted Kvar's face, "Watch your tongue, human."

"'Human' this, 'human' that," she said bitterly. "My _name_ is _Anna_, Lord Kvar. Even with only twenty of us, supposedly doing something important, you can't even remember our names? Or is this an attempt to distance yourself from the fact that we're just as sentient as you are, so you can pretend we're cattle-_augh!"_ She was cut off as the butt of a Desian whip struck her face. She managed to get her arms up to block the next blow, but to her surprise, a strong grip hauled her away from the source.

"Kvar, if she is to receive her exsphere, perhaps it would be better for her to be in one piece, hm?" Anna didn't bother to look at her sudden savior, only paying attention to the three half-elves in front of her, one of the goons still with his whip raised. All of them had similar expressions of shock.

Lord Kvar managed to recover first, "L-lord Kratos, what an . . . unexpected pleasure. I wasn't aware that we were due for a visit."

The vise grip on Anna's elbow lessened a little. "Lord Yggdrasill has taken a personal interest in this experiment, and sent me to observe. I assume that won't be an issue?" For all that the man's voice was mild, it was clear that arguing was unwise.

She could almost hear Kvar's teeth grinding. "As it pleases his lordship. However, I must ask that you not interfere with the process. Which includes the discipline of the subjects."

"Hn. Last time I checked, part of the scientific method involves eliminating as many unnecessary variables as possible. Unless you plan to corporally punish each of the subjects. And considering that they're already variables themselves, given what I've seen of them, I'd suggest not. Lord Yggdrasil is very interested in knowing if this process will be repeatable." It was a little funny to see the looks on the scientists' faces—like they agreed, but were terribly afraid to show it in front of their leader. Kvar looked like he was ready to explode, teeth grinding audibly, and Anna was hard pressed to keep from grinning, despite her residual fear.

Anna was pushed firmly towards the scientist holding one of the dark exspheres. She had just enough time to glance back over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of shaggy, dark red hair and a lot of purple before her left hand was grabbed roughly, and something hard was being jammed into the back of it.

The shock physically jolted her—she knew that exspheres couldn't possibly hurt _this_ badly! It was like her entire arm had been hit by lightning, which then spread quickly through her entire body, burning and aching, muscles twitching. She could feel adrenaline releasing, even worse than when the Desians had come to take her away.

So consumed by her near agony that when her vision finally cleared, she found herself sitting on the floor, chest heaving like she'd just finished another mile. She could hear the scientist and Kvar saying something about her having a lesser reaction—dear Goddess, how must it have felt for the little friend, if that was the case?-but her gaze was firmly fixed on the cause of the pain.

The exsphere glinted dully in its setting—_her hand_. Surely the Desian exspheres didn't set this far into the skin, not with those little shields. And even a fraction of a centimeter would be helpful here—she imagined she could feel the substance pressing against the delicate bones. Pain radiated out from the jewel, and the skin looked raw and irritated. She remembered her brief glimpses of other prisoners, how theirs looked like the exsphere was sitting in a bed of old scars. How long would it take before hers matched?

A hand appeared in her line of sight, and she cringed automatically before realizing that it was offering assistance. It was the other lord—Lord Kratos, and she felt a little mixed up inside as she let herself be helped to her feet, keeping her eyes down. He'd helped her, but he'd only done so to keep her usable for this . . . experiment. That hardly made him a friend. He was a _Desian_. Had she really lowered herself to looking for kindness from her captors?

The hand holding hers kept it for a moment, angling the exsphere in the light as though it were just another piece of jewelry. "Interesting color, Kvar. I'd be interested in seeing the files concerning content. Is the . . . ah, absorption rate similar to the regular exspheres?"

"That is one of the variables that this particular experiment is to determine, Lord Kratos," Kvar began, obviously having regained his composure while Anna had been twitching, gesturing for the other to follow. "If you'll accompany me to the research lab, we can . . ." His voice faded off as Kvar and Kratos left the room. The scientists and aides all breathed a collective sigh of relief before returning to their work, shoving Anna over to the little boy, letting her carry him into the next room, where they apparently needed to do _all_ of the previous tests over again.

* * *

A/N: Thanks to everyone who's read this; I'm always really surprised by the stats page—but then, I've never looked to see how many Kratos/Anna fics there are, so maybe I'm just filling a niche genre. Regardless, everyone who visited inspired me to pick this back up, so thank you!


End file.
